Cooling towers are commonly significant contributors to the overall noise
emitted by power generation facilities. Because power generation facilities are
often required to meet strict environmental noise criteria, predicting the
potential noise impact of the cooling tower during the design of the facility is
important in developing noise mitigation strategies. The prediction technique
must accurately simulate the noise radiation pattern associated with the cooling
tower. The main components of noise associated with mechanical draft cooling
towers generally include the water falling over the fill media, the operation of
the fan units, and the operation of the circulating water pumps. This paper
summarizes a study of cooling tower noise modeling techniques frequently used to
simulate sound propagation. The noise emitted from a mechanical draft cooling
tower is modeled by various directional point source configurations to account
for each noise component. Additionally, the noise barrier effect of the cooling
tower is included. The noise impact predicted by the cooling tower models are
compared to field sound level measurements in order to evaluate the
effectiveness of the cooling tower models.